Cambodian coach banned for fixing Young Socceroos game

Vince Rugari

A Cambodian football coach has been banned from the sport for life for helping to fix a match involving the Young Socceroos last year.

Peas Sothy, the coach of Cambodian side National Police Commissary FC, was one of 22 people issued life bans by the Asian Football Confederation this week as part of an ongoing investigation surrounding the Lao Football Federation's representative teams.

The AFC did not release specific details, but a spokesman for the Football Federation of Cambodia revealed Sothy was accused of being involved in manipulating a match at last year's AFC U-19 Youth Championships in Vietnam.

The match in question was Australia's 2-1 group stage victory over Laos on September 20.

Laos took the lead just before half-time but second-half goals to Lachlan Scott and George Blackwood put the Young Socceroos ahead.

Australia went on to win the tournament.

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It's unclear if the result itself was fixed or if Sothy was involved in spot- fixing.

"The AFC has a zero-tolerance policy on match-fixing and its regulations provide for tough sanctions for match manipulation," the AFC said in a statement.

Sothy intends to lodge an appeal, alleging the AFC have suspended him "without proof" and were trying to ruin his career.